Question: Juvenile axie gills\\water current

[notaphrodite]

Hey! I'm a new mom to a 5ish week old axie. The babe is currently in a 10gal tank, all water levels are good. At the moment I am using an external waterfall canister filter, but the flow even at low was too much so I attached some netting to evenly distribute and now there is little-no current, really only light rippling on water level from my fan/filter. For some reason I just feel like my babe is unhappy with the flow because the gills seem a little more forward than when I was tubbing.. feathers seem fine and healthy, but.. I guess my question is, what angle are juvenile axies gills supposed to be?? More flat towards their body or more vertical? I've been wondering since I brought the babe home.

Thank you!

 

[KumquatSquats]

It doesn't look like stress curl to me. Little guys often grow into their gills so they can look a bit floppy at this age. Stress curl looks more like a tight curl towards the head

 

[notaphrodite]

Thank you so much!!